Councilman Williams Update 10/1/25

Council updates, public hearing on personal property tax collection, legislative agenda, $2.75M spending approved, and hearing set for our tree trimming removal policies we’re all on Wednesday’s agenda.

Maggie Sanford Attended virtually.

Council Member Reports

Public safety - National Night Out will be on Town Hill Tuesday Oct 14th from 5pm to 8pm.  Police Department passed all 192 accreditation standards.

Planning Commission - They are taking applications for 2 new PC members.  They discussed article 13 amendments in their last meeting.

I asked if we could give a deadline to consider new applications so that the Planning Commission could fill vacancies they’ve had a few months.  Council agreed to give one more week (COB 10/10/25) and we would vote at our regular October meeting.

Non-Governmental - Events and fundraisers.

Economic Development - your next meeting will be October 14

Parks and Rec - Barbecue Cookoff Oct 4th 12p-4p on Town Hill. Hope proceeds go to local veterans and first responders. There are two openings on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Public Works – the water meter system repeaters have been installed. Several projects were completed.

Mayor - COMREL was held in CB.  Encourages the public to attend October 6 connectivity stakeholder meeting from 6 PM to 8 PM.  CB history listed in Northern Neck Magazine. She suggested adding CIP work session to our agenda proposed date October 29.

Our new Director of Planning Community Development introduced herself.

Board of Supervisors Tim Trivett - the county has a new Director of economic development, and their focus will be on medical and affordable housing.  The county has an opening for a finance director. He mentioned the fall festival coming up and congratulated the town on their accreditation.

Public Comment

Citizen - DCB representative encouraged citizens to come out to the connectivity meeting on October 6. Mentioned CB creative now has a pottery class.

PUBLIC HEARING, Resolution #27-25, Delinquent Personal Property Tax Collections, Adam Schaefer, Assistant Finance Director - this hearing was to discuss allowing an outside company to collect our delinquent taxes and collect a 20% fee. 

Mr. Long - suggested we add a notice to the bill so people would know about the additional fees. Council, agreed that notifying the public of fees was a good idea.

After Mr. Wood made a motion to vote, I made emotion to postpone the vote until our regular meeting.  My motion failed 5–2 with the mayor and I voting yes.  My concern was not over the vote.  My concern was that we continually vote during Work Sessions when Work Sessions are to introduce and discuss items and postponing votes allows the public to provide feedback.  Mr. Moncure and I raised concerns over this in the past. Final Vote 7-0

Resolution #28-25, Approval of the 2026 Legislative Agenda, Kyler Brower, Assistant Town Manager - this was a vote to approve our legislative agenda that we decided on during our last meeting. The seven priorities listed were: waste water treatment plant, community infrastructure, environmental resiliency and stormwater, economic development, and tourism, local access to healthcare, required local match for schools and access to broadband. The mayor suggested adding affordable housing to the economic development priority and council supported that. I asked why we didn’t have more specific projects attached to the agenda as discussed in our prior meeting and was told that we may provide some to the legislators if asked. Final vote 7-0

Resolution #29-25, Authorizes the Town to Proceed with Consent Order Compliance Items, Chris Ruchty, Director of Public Works - This was to approve $2.75M in ARPA funds to be spent on DEQ consent order infrastructure required projects.  In a prior meeting, I asked for more specific details and a breakdown of exactly what we would be spending this money on. It was not provided so I questioned where the info was and got a vague reply but no details.  The rest of Council did not seem concerned that staff wasn’t providing the requested details.  I personally believe we should hold town staff accountable for exactly what money/ projects we are approving.  The final Vote was 6-1  I was the only NO vote. I voted no due to the fact that I didn’t have enough detail to feel comfortable voting.

Request for a Public Hearing for Article 22 Chesapeake Bay Preservation District Overlay – Tree Preservation, Trimming and Permit Processing, Darla Odom, Interim Director of Community Development & Zoning - Council set a hearing date for November 19 to discuss the tree trimming ordinance. Vote to hold the meeting was 7–0.

Councilman David Williams

Please email or call with questions or comments:

dwilliams@colonialbeachva.gov

540-604-4335